Anglo-Saxons in Britain
After the Celts spread across central and western Europe, another group of people came in their wake. These were the Germanic people, who spoke a completely different language. They spread into the Baltic region, through northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and north into Norway and Sweden.
The people who lived in the southern part of that area spoke the Germanic languages, which eventually evolved into modern German dialects; the ones who lived in Scandinavia spoke Norse tongues, ancestors of modern Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
Around the time the Romans left Britain, the Germanic peoples started to cast longing gazes at the fertile island to their west. In 449 C.E., a whole passel of them got into their boats and sailed across the North Sea to Britain. Old English chronicles name them as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They were fearsome people, eager for violence, and the native Britons (who were Celts) fled before their swords and fires. As they established themselves, people in Britain began to refer to them collectively as the Angles, or the English; this time in British history is known as the “Anglo-Saxon” period.
The Anglo-Saxon language, also called Old English, looks nothing like modern English. Old English works such as
The Celts retreated to Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland, which, along with Ireland, are the few places that Celtic languages are left today. The invaders took over everything else, the most fertile parts of Britain. The extent to which they overwhelmed the natives is evident in the scarcity of Celtic words in the English language.
